“Medical facilities in Gaza, which have already been overstrained by the longstanding shortages of medical supplies, electricity and fuel, are struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of casualties,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated.

Gaza’s health ministry “reported shortages of essential medical supplies, including emergency and anesthesia drugs and disposables, in addition to essential laboratory materials,” the United Nations group added.

One of those killed on Friday was farmer Omar Wahid Samour, 26, who died when Israeli forces fired artillery shells at him while he was on his land, more than 700 meters from the boundary fence, in southern Gaza.

The Gaza-based human rights group Al Mezan confirmed the deaths of eight protesters on Friday, all killed by live fire.

Tents have been erected at five locations along Gaza’s eastern boundary for a six-week protest that will end on the 15 May, when Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the mass expulsion that preceded and followed the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948.

Every two in three Palestinians in Gaza is a refugee. Israel has denied Palestinians from returning to the land from which they were expelled, a right enshrined in international law.

Following the establishment of Israel, Prime Minister David Ben Gurion ordered the army to shoot and kill any Palestinian who dared cross the new borders to return to their land. 70 years later, the IDF is implementing the exact same policy at the Gaza's 'Great Return March.' pic.twitter.com/uiusasTWXD

This participant said that her family were refugees from a village that is now in Israel and that she wanted to send a message to the Israeli army and to the Arab world that “one day we will return to our lands that are just behind us”:

Unprecedented gathering: Palestinians march not for food, not for aid. Palestinians march against 7 decades of Israeli Occupation, apartheid, oppression, and barbarity. Palestine marches for freedom and equal rights. #GreatReturnMarchpic.twitter.com/fFRWnreDIl

Shujaiya: Most of these Palestinians have never been this close to their original villages or towns destroyed/depopulated by terrorist Jewish militias before and after 1948.#GreatReturnMarchpic.twitter.com/IxTT4vvWxM

Protest organizers and the ruling Hamas authorities in Gaza, keen to avoid another military confrontation with Israel, called for a peaceful mobilization and urged demonstrators not to approach the boundary fence.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stated on Friday that the protest marks the beginning of a return to “all of Palestine.”

Another senior Hamas official said that “We have waited for too long to return to the lands from which our grandparents were expelled 70 years ago.”

A Palestinian woman holds a banner reading “We are returning to our village Karatia” during a tent city protest along the Gaza-Israel boundary in the central Gaza Strip on 30 March.

Mahmoud KhattabAPA images

The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem condemned Israel’s plans to use lethal force ahead of the protest on Thursday.

“Fragments of information reported by the media indicate that soldiers will be ordered to shoot anyone coming within 300 meters of the fence; snipers will fire at anyone touching it; live fire will be used also in circumstances which are non-life-threatening,” B’Tselem stated.

“[Israel] has made Gaza a huge prison, yet forbids the prisoners even to protest against this, on pain of death,” the group added.

Palestinians take part in a tent city protest along the Gaza-Israel boundary demanding refugees’ right to return to their homeland, east of Gaza City, 30 March.

Mohammed DahmanAPA images

On Friday the Palestinian human rights group Adalah called for an investigation into the use of lethal force against Gaza protesters.

“Live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants,” Adalah stated.

Human Rights Watch also protested “the shocking number of Palestinians killed and hurt” by Israeli forces on Friday:

Israeli soldiers operate under an apparent shoot-to-kill policy in Gaza’s boundary areas. The exact range of the zone is undeclared but is generally understood to be within 300 meters of the Gaza-Israel boundary.

Israeli forces killed 19 Palestinians inside the Gaza boundary between the beginning of 2017 and 3 March 2018, according to B’Tselem.

Eight Palestinians inside Gaza were killed protesting against Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December alone.

Friday marked the greatest number of Palestinian fatalities in a single day at the hands of occupation forces since a ceasefire ended Israel’s 51-day military assault on the Gaza Strip in summer 2014, which killed more than 2,200 Palestinians.

Israeli forces have killed 34 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip so far this year. Five Israelis were killed in the West Bank during the same period.

This story was updated since initial publication to include quotations from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and mention of 20 critically wounded persons.

Comments

Little doubt the racist Torah desecrators will put the blame on those uppity AA-rabs and all us "outside" agitators, from near and far, for these murders. The World has seen this before.

As a Jew I am disgusted by the crimes of Benny Nutjob and his ilk, by using the venerable religion of Judaism as cover for their racism and their crimes. In them the ghost of Theodore Gilmore Bilbo haunts the World still. Zionazis it is time to change your wicked ways.

BLOODY FRIDAY
Not one peep out of Kornacki in for Chris Matthews on Hardball about Bloody Friday Not a peep out of Chris Hayes, Maddow had the Richard Engel special on but we can be 100% assured based on Maddow’s record there would not have been a peep out of her. Not a peep out of Lawrence O’Donnell or Brian Williams about Bloody Friday for the Palestinians because Israeli soldiers shot and killed 15 and injured 1000. Can you imagine this happening in any other country on the globe and these bought and paid for cable host ignoring this slaughter. People want to push back on the idea that Comcast are bigots and complete supporters of what every Israel does. Once again this fact is proven.

These MSNBC host are bought and paid for. What a bunch of yellow bellied and shameful cowards

This demonstration marks the start of the third stage in the Palestinian struggle against Zionism. The first stage was that of armed struggle and ended in defeat. The second stage was that of negotiation and one-sided concessions and has now also ended in defeat. The third stage is that of appeal to world public opinion and will end in victory. I hope that it will not take very long and that Palestine will be free even in our days.